by M J Kendrick
“Everyone’s first thought is to locate a company in their hometown. Now I know how much you love Gainesville, but you must take into consideration that for all intents and purposes, Gainesville is an Omni town, so it may be prudent to think further afield. Lastly, as your friend and fashion consultant, I want you to think long and hard about this. I don’t mean the discovery as such but more about you personally. This isn’t going to be a short-term project. What we are doing here is mapping out your life and career.
“You must be 100 percent sure of this and what you are about to embark upon. How are you going to survive, for example? I’m sure your parents aren’t going to fund you for the rest of your life. I know mine aren’t. So you need to figure out a way to keep the accounts in the black whilst you develop whatever you use the discovery for, and that is probably going to take a while.
“Finally, if you do let go of the side and do this and you do find a way to make enough money to finish your R&D and do manage to invent something fantastic... then what? You are going to have to devise a plan that allows you to use your invention and make a decent living from it without getting killed off by every company and government agency on the planet.
“I’ve already done some research on this, the amounts that companies invest in the field of energy production and nano technology is staggering—but so is the controversy. There isn’t a single company or organization that doesn’t have some dubious element as to how they get their tech, and I suspect Omni is no exception, so I had a quiet word with my dad’s former security guy. He was how my dad figured out who the main threat to his company was just before he sold it. Even though I didn’t give him any specific details, he said that under no circumstances should we underestimate any of the players in the field. If any of them thought there was something out there that could advance them, they wouldn’t hesitate to do literally anything to get it.
“In your case, it’s the Israelis and the Chinese—and we definitely don’t want to be messing with those guys. Given that your discovery could put you right in their game means you have to stay well below the radar, and that, old chap, is not going to be an easy task.”
Carlton just sat there listening, taking everything in. He had briefly thought, every now and then, about most of the things that had been said, but hearing it from William and how he had put everything into sharp perspective made Carlton happy, worried, nervous, frightened, and excited all at the same time.
He would take William’s advice and think long and hard about what he was about to do.
***
Within a few days, life at Wakefield had once again returned to the normal routine of quiet studies, late night lectures, and endless dissertations.
After two weeks, Carlton had made his decisions. He was going to proceed on all fronts. He had played devil’s advocate with himself, pulling apart every scenario, weighing up the good, the bad, and the risks attached. He was being as brutal with himself as he knew how, and every time the answer that presented itself to him was very much in favor of not going ahead, as, when thinking rationally, all of the negatives clearly outweighed the positives. But, for one thing, the irrational side of his otherwise steady outlook on life was telling every bone in his body that the enormity of the discovery made any of the downsides pale in comparison.
It was a decision he had to reach on his own, but when he did, it was clear this was a chance of a lifetime and worth any risks. Once he had decided, he had felt as if a great weight had been lifted.
The burning questions had affected everything he was doing as the conflict in his mind dominated his thoughts, but now he had crystal clarity and a dogged determination to proceed.
Carlton had struggled with deciding on a suitable name for his company, in the end settling for “Quantum,” which he felt met the criteria—and, above all, he liked it.
***
William had been quietly exploring possibilities about the equipment situation and had been trolling through Craigslist during a boring chemistry lecture when a quiet conversation between two students sitting in front and slightly below him caught his attention when the words “gas analyzer” was mentioned.
As he listened in, the girl on the left whispered to her friend, “Just rent one from ‘Educational Supplies’ over on Colonial. A lot of students get their stuff from there. They have some sort of agreement with MIT, I think.”
William couldn’t wait for the lecture to finish. When it did, he was out of there and in his Smart car in a flash. He wanted to check out what the equipment company had.
As William pulled onto the drive and maneuvered his car between the jigsaw puzzle parking left by the other Smarties, he could tell that it was Carlton’s turn to prepare dinner by the burning smell that was hanging in the air. As he entered the kitchen, Carlton was piling up some charred sausages onto a plate. Despite their dark color, William thought they looked quite appetizing.
He smiled and said, “Great, snags.” The Smarties now always referred to sausages as snags, a term which they loved to use and had quickly picked up from Carlton, who had, in turn, adopted it from Rose, who had always called them that whenever she held one of her Aussie barbecues.
William excitedly sat at the table and said, “You’ll never believe what I’ve just found out.”
Carlton turned and looked at him with a raised spatula, smiled, and said, “Speak, oh wise one.”
William giggled. “I’ve found a place where you can rent all of the equipment you want for as long as you need, and the stuff is really good, better than we could buy, and they will extend the rental for as long as you are at MIT.”
“That’s fantastic,” said Carlton. “How did you find out about that?”
William told him about his eavesdropping exploits and his visit to the shop. Carlton was impressed. “That should leave me with about $10k if I rent until the end of the year, hopefully leaving enough for me to start checking out some places.”
“I love it when a plan comes together,” said William jokingly.
“What plan?” Calisto had walked into the kitchen and overheard William.
Carlton and William shot a glance at each other and looked just about as guilty as anyone ever could, which Calisto immediately picked up on.
“What are you two up to?” she said accusingly.
“Oh, just trying to figure out how I can continue with my experiments,” said Carlton as he took hold of the conversation after realizing how suspicious they must have looked.
After explaining William’s great news, he asked Calisto about her father’s mine and if there was any way she could get him some iridium. Calisto was always happy to talk about her father’s mine and anything to do with her field.
“We only produce a small quantity from our mine. It’s a byproduct of our platinum refining and is usually all presold to the telecoms companies,” she said. “We haven’t got much of a KT boundary where the mines are, and that’s often where the highest concentrations of iridium are usually found.” She looked thoughtful. “How much do you need?”
Carlton had sat down at the table and placed his index finger along his lips, deep in thought. After a brief moment, he said, “In an ideal world, I could use ten cigarette-packet-sized ingots, but I could never afford that much. Three would cover all of my experiments and growth program for the duration of my time here at MIT. I could get away with two, but would be hampered if it was only one.”
Calisto didn’t look fazed. “Look, I can’t promise anything, but I’ll talk to my father later tonight. If there is any possibility to get you your iridium, I might be able to bring some back with me after summer break, but it’s only an if. We all know how much this means to you, so I promise I’ll try my best.”
Carlton was beaming. He leapt up and gratefully hugged Calisto saying, “Thank you, Cally, you’re the best.”
“What’s all this then?” announced Lucy, trying to hide a momentary flash of jealousy. She was standing in the doorway. “I don’t kno
w, turn my back for five minutes . . .”
They all laughed.
***
That night as Carlton lay in his bed, he felt a calm excitement wash over him. Dinner with the Smarties was always a great release.
They had all talked and joked long into the night as if they treated each time they were together as their chance to unwind and relax and put the strains of their heavy curriculums behind them. Tonight, they had each spoken about what they would do after MIT. It was no surprise to Carlton that Lucy wanted to join ACR in his mother’s labs, which of course led the Smarties to start humming the wedding march, to his and Lucy’s red faces. Carlton smiled as he recollected the scene.
Everyone knew Calisto would eventually take over her father’s mining operation and Haru, Anton, and Per would look to join a company that would allow them to continue in their fields. Miles and William had no idea what they would do. Miles definitely didn’t want anything to do with the military, and William’s family business had been sold, so he would probably end up working for another company in the pharmaceutical industry. They all just assumed Carlton would be in his father’s lab at the farm.
Carlton wished they could all stay together, and he hoped that someday that would happen. He felt sure the Smarties all felt the same way as they had all become so close recently. He thought he would talk to William about it at some point, just as a deep but contented sleep took him.
***
A month later, Carlton’s bank account was $3,000 lighter and his new equipment was in place and setup in the nerdlab. He had gone as far as he could without having iridium, so he had concentrated on prepping for his dissertation defenses, which he would sit just before the summer break. In his downtime, he would often join Miles in his quest for a viable composite, which turned out to be something that Carlton really enjoyed.
Miles had been smelting different alloys with chemical additives in his area using a small gas-powered blast furnace. The heat it generated made life in the nerdlab uncomfortable as summer approached, and he was soon relegated to the backyard, much to everyone’s relief. Miles’s latest batch had proven to be too brittle and joined the other failures on the growing pile of slag that was beginning to resemble a swamp monster.
Anton had asked Carlton if he could help him melt down some silica that he could use to mold and cast into small insulation blocks for his latest flat-beamed laser. Miles wouldn’t need his furnace again for quite a while, opting instead to go back to the drawing board and start a different approach.
He felt sorry for Miles. Carlton had all the answers that Miles needed with his nano tubes but couldn’t let on because of his Omni obligations and also because of the discovery. Carlton just kept being supportive and encouraging to Miles. He had a plan, but, for now, he had to bide his time.
Anton and Carlton were standing around the furnace joking with each other as the pure silica beads began to heat in the crucible. As William walked past on his way to see Haru in the nerdlab, William peered over the furnace and said, “You know, if you add some oxides to that, you’ll increase its properties. Try a dash of cadmium. That should do the trick. That’s what they use in radiation shield glasses. Miles has a bunch of stuff. He’ll fix you up, I’m sure.”
While Anton went off to talk to Miles, Carlton asked William about other oxides.
He had been trying to figure a way to focus the iridium block’s exerted force by introducing a compatible substance that could bond at a molecular level with the iridium nano tubes so they could be grown in perfect alignment, which would greatly enhance their performance.
William explained what he knew about the properties that additives to silica would offer, their chief uses relating to extremely high-quality industrial lenses.
Carlton was excited—he wanted to know a great deal more and would research the subject in depth. He already knew the molecular structure of iridium, so he had a strong starting point, but he wanted to know how it would affect any of the properties of the iridium nano tubes or if it would compromise the force properties of the irradiated version. Unfortunately, without his iridium it was something he wouldn’t be able to test for a considerable time.
After Anton had poured his molten silica into the several oddly shaped little molds, Carlton tapped out the now cooling and hardening residue onto a piece of flat steel resting across a couple of house bricks that they were using as a makeshift bench. It came out in one piece, looking like a deep glazed cookie with a thin base still glowing dark red as it stiffened and cooled. He wanted to take a close look at the silica under the electron microscope once it had cooled enough to handle, to examine its properties.
In the meantime, he would go and pester Lucy in the kitchen. It was her turn to cook.
When dinner had finished, Haru and Anton joined Carlton as he returned to the nerdlab to carry on with their projects. Carlton retrieved the silica, and, after giving it a thorough clean, he began his examination.
The glass that had formed was extremely clear at the top, but became increasingly peppered with inclusions and debris as the impurities sank to the thin base. The base itself interested Carlton, as it had a metallic appearance, no doubt some leftover residue from Miles’s last concoction. Carlton fractured off a small piece that gave him a full cross section and would also comfortably fit into the electron microscope.
Under magnification, Carlton was impressed at the crystalline uniformity of the clear upper layer of glass. The inclusions were unremarkable specks of dirt, but the point of contact with the metallic base was not. Carlton increased the magnification and focused his attention on the transition point between the glass and the base and noticed that there appeared to be a fusion of the two. It was microns thin and barely visible even under extreme magnification, but it was significant. To Carlton, it looked as though some of the glass had indeed molecularly bonded with the metals present in the base.
He felt his heartrate quicken. This could be a vital indication that his molecular bonding theory process may have merit. It could be the key to amplifying the exerted force to phenomenal levels—maybe even to the point of being able to solve the entire world’s energy needs. He was lost in thought for a moment as his mind raced.
He needed to be sure.
He devised a series of experiments specifically aimed at identifying the best additive combinations that showed the greatest level of interaction as it transitioned from the iridium ingot to the lens and that would mean getting a jeweler’s furnace, as Miles’s one was far too large and contaminated.
Fortunately, they were easy to get and inexpensive.
Carlton thought about his MIT studies. They’d have to take priority for now, but he should still be able to get together what he needed for his experiments within about a week or so. He decided to clean up and go to his room to draw up a program of which properties he would need so he would be ready for when he had some pure iridium to work with.
***
Compiling his experiment agenda took Carlton far longer than he originally anticipated. The extra time he’d taken researching the molecular structure of silica and carbon had meant he had to forego making his casting molds, as he barely had time to finish before his dissertation defenses and summer break had arrived.
As before, Carlton had completed his defenses in record time and, after hurriedly packing his things in Comet, left for home as soon as he could.
The journey back to Gainesville passed quickly as he thought about everything from how he would tackle the next series of tests and how he was going to bring the Smarties in on it, to how overwhelming everything that was currently in play was. He thought of William’s words: “One step at a time, old boy.” The thought calmed him.
He moved on to his growing fondness for Lucy and how much he was missing her. He smiled to himself as he pictured her in her favorite summer dress, its pastel lilac hues perfectly complementing her blonde hair.
Is she the force that drove him? he wondered as Comet slowly ate up the
miles.
The rhythmic purr of its engine was hypnotic. Would he ever pluck up the courage to tell her how he really felt? A passing semi broke his thought as Comet shook in the truck’s wake. The Omni logo on its rear thrust him back to reality, and, once again, the discovery filled his mind.
Chapter Nineteen
Leon Whittaker had been on the Omni board for seventeen years. Being ex-CIA, he had been a valuable asset to Omni, with his intricate knowledge and experience of dealing with government issues. But as he was approached his sixty-eighth birthday, thoughts of calling it a day and retiring grew ever more appealing.
Omni’s successes over the years had made all of the board members extremely wealthy, and that wealth had only increased when they had been awarded the lucrative tether contract.
Leon sat on his favorite bench in the sunshine, admiring the fountain and the White House in the distance. Today he was meeting with Trent Slater. Trent was the young, ambitious upstart that he had first met some years ago when his old friend General Edwards had first brought him into the agency. Leon didn’t much care for him then and was opposed to his being assigned to the Omni project, but Slater had quickly made a name for himself in what was only ever described as AGA—“another government agency.”
Leon didn’t like Trent. To him, he was a little too callous in his methods. A view that had grown each time they had met.
Leon was far too long in the tooth to be fazed by Trent. He too had been a little like him when he was younger and first joined the agency. Even so, he always felt Trent had a secret agenda that wasn’t necessarily in line with anyone’s interest but his own, so he made a point of keeping their meetings as short as possible.
